Kanon (2006) Review

Kanon is the story of Yuuichi Aizawa, who comes to live with his Aunt and Cousin. He has visited this town before when he was young, but for some reason cannot remember any of the details of his previous visits. During his stay he meets quite a few young women and explores his connection to each of them. Sounds like your typical harem show. In fact, this is a remake of a rather average 13 episode series aired in 2002. The new series is much better. Even though the storyline is the same, this series is 24 episodes long, so there is much more detail in the story this time. Unfortunately, the ending is the same.

There are two stars of this series. One is Tomokazu Sugita who does an excellent job as Yuuichi. The other is the studio, Kyoto Animation. Everything from the art, to the new story details is extremely well done. If you liked the older series, I would highly recommend the new one. You will enjoy the improvements greatly. However, as I said above, the overall story and ending are the same.

The story itself is fairly typical of a harem show. Yuuichi spends a couple episodes exploring his relationship with each girl. At the end he makes a choice between the girls. One of the best things about this show, is that there is practically no infighting between the girls. For the most part, the show is broken up so that there is not much overlap between the girls. In fact, they mostly tend to disappear once their story is told. While I appreciate the lack of angst due to infighting, I was disappointed with the disappearing act. I would like to have seen more of the other girls throughout the rest of the show. While there is little angst bewteen the girls, there is quite a bit of sadness in each of the girls' stories. This show is known for "sad girls in snow" for a reason. Be prepared for lots of tears. Some might even be your own.

I really like what Kyoto Animation has done with this show, but it is still a remake of a story that was rather average to begin with. I like the characters, but wish there were more of each of the girls throughout the rest of the show. The small patches of humor were well done. There is a lot of sadness, but mostly happiness in the end. I rated the original 2 stars. With the added detail and much, much better art, I was happier with the remake. If you have to choose between the two, definately go with the newer version.

Final rating: 3 stars.